13 December 1999
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
Who says we're dumbing down?
From Verdi's Falstaff to the selfish gene, our culture is more highbrow than ever
Features
Stop all this fuss about our genes
The decoding of human chromosome 22 has been hailed as more important than splitting the atom. James Le Fanu is not so impressed
Don't leave justice to the judges
Liberals dream that the forthcoming human rights act will open a new era. A good look at the judiciary should make them think again
Norwood: the spy who never was
Phillip Knightley reveals the truth about the granny who was accused of being a Soviet agent
The case of the phantom millionaire
Dominic Prince finds that the fashionable Tory Ivan Massow isn't quite as rich as people think
Why Tories won't swallow gay sex
William Hague's stand on Clause 28 reflects the homophobia in his party. ByQuentin Letts
My nights in Moscow's lower depths
Criminals, Chechens, prostitutes: Jason Cowley visits the Russian capital, where nightclubs swell with the lowlife that has emerged in the wake of communism
The best stories are the local ones
New Statesman Scotland
Who are the lairds lording over us?
New Statesman Scotland - The anonymous owners of vast tracts of Scotland could be anybody from mafia bosses to drug cartels. George Rosiethinks it's time to put an end to the secrecy
What's in a place name? Everything
New Statesman Scotland - We live in a beautiful land with a rich history, but careless, unimaginative developers are breaking our connections to both
Grassroots
New Statesman Scotland
This Alba
New Statesman Scotland
Primary Tartan
New Statesman Scotland
Regulars
Arts & Culture
The bleak world of the nation's teddy bear
The playwright Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved writers. But, writes David Herman, Bennettland is not the cosy or comforting place that we suppose
Framing the future
Film 1 - Hugh Aldersey-Williams on the rich and complex vision of Peter Greenaway
Apocalypse then
Film 2 - Jonathan Romney on a formula to forget
Too much, man
Rock - Richard Cook on three survivors and one star from the glory days of pop protest
Dying trend
Music - Dermot Clinch on an unsatisfying rendition of John Dowland's melancholic songs
Books
A womb without a view. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a proud international statement. In contrast, argues Paul Barker, the Millennium Dome is a reflection of our parochial individual outlook
The Great Exhibition of 1851
Jeffrey A Auerbach Yale University Press, 256pp, £25
ISBN 0300080077
The Great Exhibition
John R Davis Sutton Publishing, 256pp, £20
Act of revenge
Scandal
Amanda Platell Piatkus, 298pp, £5.99
ISBN 0749931191
The big comeback
From Empire to Europe: The Decline and Revival of British Industry Since the Second World War
Geoffrey Owen HarperCollins, 517pp, £19.99
ISBN 0002556820
Cross-dressing
All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies
Elizabeth D Leonard W W Norton, 368pp, £19.95
ISBN 0393047121
Novel of the week
Daughter of Fortune
Isabel Allende Flamingo, 399pp, £16.99
ISBN 0002259753
Forging our history
The Isles: A History
Norman Davies Macmillan,1,264pp, £30
ISBN 033376370X
Observations
Letters to the Editor
New Statesman readers give their views - see what they said and find out how to contribute yourself by going to our letters pages
